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Peace is more harmony from within, rather than a condition that the rest of the world is in. It's about how you react and respond to your surroundings. I don't think it really matters what is going on around you or what type of background or history you have. It's about accepting the reality of your circumstances and finding a way to harmonize/blend with them. It's admittidly easier to do when your life isn't all that difficult, but the focus should be on how to acheive this state of peace and enlightenment in YOUR particular circumstances, whatever they may be.

One more idea for you Matthew. As I talk about and state about the spiritual side I'll put this perspective into it.

Spiritually you can learn to keep and remain in calmness, stillness, peacefulness, loving and with harmony. Now, this includes staying stable as such whilst observing and accepting and understanding the continuous state of flux, of continuous change in the physical universe.

This is Aikido in action from my view. The opponent being that state of flux you as a calm self harmonize with and handle and bring back to a state of peace.

So these spiritual realities don't take you away from physical but rather put you in better communication with and thus happier.

Peace.G.

I'm curious how you would reconcile this, from Gaku Homma, undeniably one of the last of the uchi-deshi ...

In the last few years of his life, the Founder sometimes fell prey to spontaneous bursts of anger, and everyone was fearful of his outbursts. Eventually high ranking shihan or shidoin quit coming to visit the Founder at Iwama all together. Fearful of his wrath, if a shihan did venture to Iwama to visit they would ask the late Morihiro Saito Shihan, who lived on the premises, about the Founder's mood and state of being before asking for an audience. If he was not in good sorts, they would leave quietly without seeing him, stopping only for a moment at the dojo altar to leave a gift of sake and a donation on their way out.

In those last years, even at Hombu Dojo in Tokyo, when I would arrive with the Founder as his otomo (attendant), the staff would ask me first how the Founder was feeling that day. If I told them the Founder was not in a good mood, shihan and administrators alike would disappear. Everyone was afraid of the Founder's bad temper when he was in these moods. It was a sad experience I had many times in the last years with the Founder.

Interesting ... interesting. Who decides what peace is? Can peace simply be the absence of conflict? ... because it's conflict that is the heart of the cosmos -> mutually opposing activities manifested in infinite ways. Is there then good conflict and bad conflict? Who would be wise enough to know which is which?

Peace, I don't know ... love might be a better word.

I think calling peace the absence of conflict is oversimplifying it. If we are talking about world peace, then we need much more then just absence of conflict.

I do not consider "survival of the fittest" as a correct description of nature and in a similar way I do not agree with an image of the cosmos being in a constant state of conflict.

In and Yo are not in conflict with one another. If they were, there would be no In and Yo.

In nature we can see a lot of changes during the seasons and with the seasons. And of course one creature may be the prey of another creature.

But it is most fascinating to see how plants cooperate with other plants to survive, how they live with insects that they need for pollination or food, how predators that should be each others competitors as they hunt for the same food coordinate their efforts in the hunt, to see ants create political alliances with other kinds of ants (to give just a few examples). It all tells you that nature is about connection and cooperation.

This is what O Sensei called Aiki or love. He was not the first philosopher or sage to call it love. I am not sure if he defined this as peace though. I rather think he saw nature as a prime example of how things should be with humans. It is humans that seem always seeking for conflict and competition resulting ultimately in war. And it is humans that are for ever going against nature in everything they do. By learning/practicing Aikido humans could learn to connect more with nature and that would naturally lead to more peace.

I'm curious how you would reconcile this, from Gaku Homma, undeniably one of the last of the uchi-deshi ...

In the last few years of his life, the Founder sometimes fell prey to spontaneous bursts of anger, and everyone was fearful of his outbursts. Eventually high ranking shihan or shidoin quit coming to visit the Founder at Iwama all together. Fearful of his wrath, if a shihan did venture to Iwama to visit they would ask the late Morihiro Saito Shihan, who lived on the premises, about the Founder's mood and state of being before asking for an audience. If he was not in good sorts, they would leave quietly without seeing him, stopping only for a moment at the dojo altar to leave a gift of sake and a donation on their way out.

In those last years, even at Hombu Dojo in Tokyo, when I would arrive with the Founder as his otomo (attendant), the staff would ask me first how the Founder was feeling that day. If I told them the Founder was not in a good mood, shihan and administrators alike would disappear. Everyone was afraid of the Founder's bad temper when he was in these moods. It was a sad experience I had many times in the last years with the Founder.

The Japanese people that I talked to never mentioned O Sensei as being a bad tempered person. Quite the opposite!
As for his very last years, I cannot help wondering if his illness (as I understand it he died of liver-cancer) did not have an influence on his moods.
Having said that; we should not confuse the philosophy with the man.

We all bring our own context to things. My personal context, the one in which I'm reading this thread, is one that is presenting some challenges to the definitions or descriptions of "peace" that I'm reading here. I've been reading Dancing in the Glory of Monsters, a background and history of the recent Congo wars. And so my thought is: it's all well and good to talk about how peace, and the pursuit of peace, is a matter of a spiritual discipline, or of getting one's head right, or whatever...but what does that have to do with the experience of the people who lived through (or didn't live through) the events of that book? Is this "peace" something reserved for those privileged to not live in a war zone?

If the word "peace" has any meaning and any relevance, surely it must include the experiences of those people.

One of the things that I learned from the stories of my father of his experiences in WW2 (he joined the US army) is that peace is a choice and a never ending task. I do not think peace is a privileged state of mind for the happy few. Or only meant for the European or American continent. I think that we can only be satisfied with the whole humanity experiencing peace. But that means we have to make certain choices and that we need to find the right politicians on the right places. And we need to be active our selves. That to me is the real spiritual pursuit. Sitting on a zafu in a sheltered home feeling very spiritual may not be enough.
Best wishes,
Tom

Peace is more harmony from within, rather than a condition that the rest of the world is in. It's about how you react and respond to your surroundings. I don't think it really matters what is going on around you or what type of background or history you have. It's about accepting the reality of your circumstances and finding a way to harmonize/blend with them. It's admittidly easier to do when your life isn't all that difficult, but the focus should be on how to acheive this state of peace and enlightenment in YOUR particular circumstances, whatever they may be.

True enough. But O Sensei was not just talking about peace of mind or just of a way to personally deal with your circumstances. When talking of peace he was talking about world peace as a goal of Aikido.
And as we all practice Aikido I think we should ask ourselves in what way are we contributing to this goal?
Best wishes,
Tom

True enough. But O Sensei was not just talking about peace of mind or just of a way to personally deal with your circumstances. When talking of peace he was talking about world peace as a goal of Aikido.
And as we all practice Aikido I think we should ask ourselves in what way are we contributing to this goal?
Best wishes,
Tom

Well said, it is not just about peace of mind ... but you do need peace of mind.

On of Ueshiba's quotes:
"Aikido begins with you. Work on yourself and your appointed task. Everyone has a spirit that can be refined, a body that can be trained in some manner, a suitable path to follow. You are here for no other purpose than to realize your inner divinity and manifest your innate enlightenment. Foster peace in your own life and then apply that to all that you encounter."

Well said, it is not just about peace of mind ... but you do need peace of mind.

On of Ueshiba's quotes:
"Aikido begins with you. Work on yourself and your appointed task. Everyone has a spirit that can be refined, a body that can be trained in some manner, a suitable path to follow. You are here for no other purpose than to realize your inner divinity and manifest your innate enlightenment. Foster peace in your own life and then apply that to all that you encounter."

I'm curious how you would reconcile this, from Gaku Homma, undeniably one of the last of the uchi-deshi ...

In the last few years of his life, the Founder sometimes fell prey to spontaneous bursts of anger, and everyone was fearful of his outbursts. Eventually high ranking shihan or shidoin quit coming to visit the Founder at Iwama all together. Fearful of his wrath, if a shihan did venture to Iwama to visit they would ask the late Morihiro Saito Shihan, who lived on the premises, about the Founder's mood and state of being before asking for an audience. If he was not in good sorts, they would leave quietly without seeing him, stopping only for a moment at the dojo altar to leave a gift of sake and a donation on their way out.

In those last years, even at Hombu Dojo in Tokyo, when I would arrive with the Founder as his otomo (attendant), the staff would ask me first how the Founder was feeling that day. If I told them the Founder was not in a good mood, shihan and administrators alike would disappear. Everyone was afraid of the Founder's bad temper when he was in these moods. It was a sad experience I had many times in the last years with the Founder.

Hi Jim.
For me this is quite simple really due to the way I look at things from my perspective. As I have said, and got in trouble for, that I understand Ueshiba and I understand Aikido. Thus I hold understanding as the key.

Simply put, he was going through something. There was something troubling him, something he was a bit frustrated with. To say I understand what it was would be merely conjecture and maybe a nice exercise for the creative mind but thats all it would be. He could have been frustrated with the way things were going or with the fact that others still were not quite getting it or even with some personal aspect, but as I said that's all conjecture and thus of no worth.

The one thing which is certain is it was a barrier of the heart he was addressing. The love side of Aikido. Maybe frustration with others not coming to terms with that aspect and thus finding he had even more to discover there himself for it was expressing itself as anger and frustration and mood.

This I see clearly personally and not therefore as a fault but as a sign of someone on the path going through a barrier of some kind. Being a very expressive person in demeanor and spirit and presence this would thus affect those around him in a more pronounced way. That's all really.

If I may be permitted to add a Judeo-Christian perspective on peace, the Hebrew word for peace is Shalom. The concept of Shalom in the Hebrew Bible conveys more than just absence of war or conflict. It is the well-being and wholeness of the entire person. Shalom bears connotations of to be made whole, without deficiency.

The Shema, the central prayer of Judaism "Hear O Israel the Lord is our God, the Lord is One", is followed by the command to "love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might." Jesus positively affirmed that this was the greatest commandment in the Hebrew scriptures. Thus the Judeo-Christian view of the person is one of wholism, rather than the dichotomy of body and soul. The command to love God found in the Shema, which is taken from Deutoronomy 6 is expressing the view that Jews (and through Jesus - Christians) should love God with their whole being.

To be at peace therefore, is to have all your needs - emotional, spiritual and physical met. Many people do not know true shalom, there are many people who are spiritually poor while being materially wealthy; there are some people who value meditation and contemplation over physical exercise; there are some who are neglected emotionally and are not given the love, affirmation, kindness and friendship they deserve.

Aikido helps to create shalom. Aikido promotes love and harmony and the Bible says that whoever loves has been born of God for God is love (1 John 4). Aikido is good for your physical and emotional health, flexibility, balance,motor-skills, co-ordination and good mind-body connection (not to mention protecting yourself). However, true shalom comes only from God. God is one and so shalom is not about becoming one with the universe (although man is "of the dust", Genesis 2, and indeed the Hebrew name Adam means 'to be red' and is a play on the Hebrew word for earth Adamah). Shalom is being one with God. The root word of shalom is shalam which means restitution. True shalom is having our broken relationship with God restored.

Jesus proclaimed he was the bread of life (John 6), the true manna from Heaven (an allusion to the bread the Israelites ate in the wilderness after Moses led them out of Egypt). Jesus was teaching that everything we need in life can be found in him. This is why at the Last Supper he referred to the bread and wine as his 'body' and 'blood'. In ancient Israel people believed bread was essential to life of the physical body. Blood was necessary for the atonement of sin and it was in the blood that the soul was found, explaining why Jewish food laws about kosher meat were so strict. Body and soul cannot exist without one another as the person is more than just the sum of his parts. Body and soul, as well as heart and spirit make up a person. In Jesus there is restitution with God and wholeness once again.